Desert Hearts (band)

This article is about the rock group Desert Hearts. For the movie, see Desert Hearts.

Desert Hearts is a rock band formed in London, England, by Nick Awde. Their music is a combination of progressive rock and world pop music.

Early days

Desert Hearts first operated as a rock three-piece that also, somewhat confusingly, played under the name of Dr Wu in 1990 before becoming a more complex four-piece in 1991 with Awde on vocals, guitar and violin, Andy Matthews on bass and vocals, Leo Katana on guitars, plus a string of drummers (aka the Spinal Tap Syndrome). Both line-ups put out band-produced cassettes – Dr Wu’s Magic Rock Brew and Dr Wu Too. Amongst the original material, all songs written by Awde, were also covers of King Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man, Strawbs' Hero and Heroine and Neil Young's Hey Hey My My. Dropping the Dr Wu tag, Awde went into the studio in 1993 to produce sessions with ex-Camel drummer Andy Ward. Awde provided vocals and played all other instruments – guitars, bass, keyboards and violin. Some of the songs were released as a Desert Hearts band-produced cassette, Desert Hearts, and included the satirical epic rocker Rumble Fish, the Steely Dan-tinged Meryl Streep and a bizarre cover of Elton John's Rocket Man (complete with howling wolf chorus).

Wilderness years

Frustrated with the sidelining of much of rock music in the early 90s, Awde put the group on hold and moved creativity into other areas. He wrote the satirical musical Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Musical – described by the Virgin Encyclopedia of Stage and Film Musicals as “a bizarre mix of spoof and satire” – and continued to develop his career as a cartoonist and illustrator. He also worked on expanding Desert Hearts as an organic creative force, a concept that Awde has been working on since 1986.

Meanwhile, Awde continued to write songs, releasing a number of them in lyric form as the verse book I Saw Satan on the Northern Line – billed as “a CD without music” – which he promoted with a handful of acoustic gigs in London, accompanied by Leo Katana on second guitar.

Having moved from illustration into plays – Awde wrote with Chris Bartlett the 2006 West End hit Pete and Dud: Come Again (about Peter Cook and Dudley Moore) – the idea of writing another musical arose – I’ve Seen that Movie Too, a "chamber" musical. There was little interest in the project because the songs were “too rocky” for Theatreland's tastes, having more in common with Noel Gallagher than Rodgers & Hammerstein. A rethink and five years later, some of those songs have become the core of the forthcoming CD Sweet Revolutions.

Close to the Edge B/W Rocket Man/Meryl Streep

Desert Hearts' 2010 release is the rather obviously titled Close to the Edge B/W Rocket Man/Meryl Streep, a mini album (or long EP, according to its original concept) laced with Mellotron keyboard arrangements. The first track is possibly the first time that a band has attempted a genuine interpretation of the milestone prog rock classic by Yes^[1] (the numerous other cover versions that exist are carbon copies by tribute bands - although special mention must be made of Japanese band Ruinzatova's jaw-dropping offering from 2003). The list of guest musicians is eclectic if not unique and includes Fred James Hill on guitars, Knox of the punk rock group The Vibrators on guitars, New York singer-songwriter Dean Friedman (of hit Lucky Stars fame) on piano and vocals, ex-Camel drummer Andy Ward, ex-Wizzard saxophonist Nick Pentelow and multi-instrumentalist Lyndon Connah (Level 42, 64 Spoons). The album is also reputed to be the first album to be released featuring the new Mellotron M4000 on each track. The EP is MelloFest Three.

MelloRetro

Slated for release in later 2010 with the same line-up as Close to the Edge... is MelloRetro. A full album, MelloRetro is a reinterpretation of classic rock tracks, each arranged around the Mellotron sounds. While not all of the original versions featured Mellotron, they were produced with orchestras or other lush arrangements that make a natural transition in particular to the keyboard's strings, brass and choirs. The album uses the new M4000 Mellotron on every track and includes rarely heard tape sounds such as vibes, solo sax and bass clarinet. The album will be MelloFest Four.

Sweet Revolutions

Also in the pipeline (i.e. already recorded but awaiting a convenient release slot) is Sweet Revolutions, a mix of world rock/pop songs also laced with Mellotron, sung not only in English but also in Arabic, Spanish, French and Italian. The songs – covers and originals – are short and almost poppy, but the mini-epic structure of each hints at underlying progressive rock influences, a phenomenon Awde calls “prog pop”.

The concept behind Sweet Revolutions is to show the pop side of progressive rock while also showing that “world music” isn’t all quaint nose flutes and wailing but that there are serious songwriters outside of Western Europe and North America who have produced pop/rock classics of their own - surprising to many since all of these songwriters are better known for their protest and folk work. A theme, therefore, that also runns through the album is the concept of revolution, i.e. that some of the most unlikely songs can hide a revolutionary message, while some of the most revolutionary singer-songwriters can produce a classic pop song.

Hoy Mi Deber Era (Today My Duty Was...), for example, is a plaintive love song to the motherland written by Cuban Silvio Rodríguez, one of the leading lights of the Nueva Trova movement, while Souad Massi’s Raoui (Storyteller) is a startling plea for truth from a young songwriter whose love of rock and pop forced her to leave the violence of her native Algeria. Awde’s original songs take a different take on the idea of revolution, given that Britain is neither Cuba nor Algeria. Accordingly Rumble Fish is revisited as a take on consumerism and a post credit crunch lament, while the up-tempo Revolution Alley – taken from I’ve Seen that Movie Too – sees the 70s revolution in Chile through an exile's eyes.

Mellotrons

The Desert Hearts albums are significant because the songs and production values complement Awde's travelling music festival concept MelloFest and his 2008 book Mellotron (book): The Machine and the Musicians that Revolutionised Rock [1]. Some of Britain and Europe's most influential musicians, songwriters and producers chart their careers with the Mellotron, the world's first sampler keyboard. Across 20-plus interviews classic acts include the Moody Blues, Strawbs, King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD), plus later groups such as IQ and the Flower Kings. The result is a unique insight into the history of British rock and pop and its lasting influence worldwide that has direct resonances with the music played, for example, on Sweet Revolutions.

References

1. ^ http://www.planetmellotron.com/reva6.htm#awde